Purifying stormwater, at the source, in the stormwater drain, is the most elegant solution to a growing problem for communities and property.
Swedrop is a disposable filter which floats in the standing water of the stormwater drain.
The filter extracts hydrocarbons, chemicals and heavy metals.
After 12 months the filter is removed and incinerated.
EU regulations requires stormwater to be treated to acceptable quality by 2021.
Optineo makes the Swedrop. Optineo was at the Singularity University Global Summit 2018 last week.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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More choking regulations. Soon a drop of oil will be a “spill”. When it is in the ground it’s nat-u-ral; on the ground – in minute quantity – completely different story. Thank God for Dawn dish soap to clean up the ducklings. Buy proctor & gamble!
More choking regulations. Soon a drop of oil will be a spill””. When it is in the ground it’s nat-u-ral; on the ground – in minute quantity – completely different story. Thank God for Dawn dish soap to clean up the ducklings. Buy proctor & gamble!”””
Well, first you burn them. Once you accumulate enough ashes, it becomes a resource, heavy metals ore!
Ignore him. Edgy 12 year-olds love apocalypse-inducing AnCap philosophies.
Actually, an astonishing number of micro organisms have the capability to adjust their metabolism to digest hydro carbons. It’s a common source of energy in the entire eco system. Almost all hydro carbons are consumed by different micro organisms all over the planet. This is taken advantage of when cleaning up spills and it’s called bio remediation. The method is about accelerating natural processes by alleviating bottlenecks so the hydro carbons are digested quicker. Often the bottlenecks are lack of oxygen and/or NPK.
I don’t get it. You have a filter that leaches heavy metals, with costs dictated by public-policy-preference where one can argue that the rent-seek isn’t even a shame. Why not HARVEST THEM? “Pecunia non olet.
…..that…you may want to rethink that point your making.A gallon of water in your body is normal that same in your lungs and your dead.Oil in the water is bad and it does need to be cleaned up. SALT is also horrible. Its destroying the water ways here in Tennesse I can only imagine about up north. Its killing the fish and other wild life and harming the whole ecosystem around it.The above is a common sense attempt to clean it. More of the thinking shown here is needed.
Just because something has a lot of metal in it does not mean it is economically viable to process those metals out. Here’s an example I know a bit about: old wiring. Just about everything you can poke a stick at, plus some types of stick, has wiring in it these days. Thin strands of copper with PVC insulation. Why PVC (poly vinyl chloride)? Because it’s cheap, waterproof, a pretty good insulator, and tough. Really tough. You can get PVC insulation, subject it to strong electric fields. Bake it at up to the boiling point of water. Vibrate it. Temperature cycle it from freezing to boiling and back again every day. And do this for literally decades. And after all that it will still be covering your wires and keeping them insulated and safe and dry. And then… the product isn’t wanted any more and now all those wires just look like rubbish to be disposed of. EXCEPT that they contain heaps of copper, which is valuable. So you get the PVC off. But how? Well… that’s the problem. In the old days you’d pile all your wires up in a huge pile, throw some petrol on it, strike a match and step back. Way back. No, a lot further back. Because that pile of burning wire will be generating a huge plume of horrible black smoke. Filed with tar and soot and microparticles and toxic fumes, various organochlorine compounds… and quite significant quantities of hydrochloric acid. You don’t want to be anywhere near that smoke. You don’t want anything you even like to be near that smoke. But it all burns up, the smoke goes away, and now you’ve got a tangled mess of copper wire you can melt down and sell. Except that these days you can’t do that without the EPA jumping on your neck with (for once) full justification. Especially if you’re a recycling business that expects to do this all the time. Just not going to happen. So… I speak to some recyclers and they are gritting their teeth in frustration. They have literally tonnes of valuable copper that they just can’t
Just because something has a lot of metal in it does not mean it is economically viable to process those metals out.Here’s an example I know a bit about: old wiring.Just about everything you can poke a stick at plus some types of stick has wiring in it these days. Thin strands of copper with PVC insulation. Why PVC (poly vinyl chloride)? Because it’s cheap waterproof a pretty good insulator and tough. Really tough. You can get PVC insulation subject it to strong electric fields. Bake it at up to the boiling point of water. Vibrate it. Temperature cycle it from freezing to boiling and back again every day. And do this for literally decades. And after all that it will still be covering your wires and keeping them insulated and safe and dry.And then… the product isn’t wanted any more and now all those wires just look like rubbish to be disposed of. EXCEPT that they contain heaps of copper which is valuable.So you get the PVC off. But how? Well… that’s the problem.In the old days you’d pile all your wires up in a huge pile throw some petrol on it strike a match and step back. Way back. No a lot further back. Because that pile of burning wire will be generating a huge plume of horrible black smoke. Filed with tar and soot and microparticles and toxic fumes various organochlorine compounds… and quite significant quantities of hydrochloric acid. You don’t want to be anywhere near that smoke. You don’t want anything you even like to be near that smoke. But it all burns up the smoke goes away and now you’ve got a tangled mess of copper wire you can melt down and sell.Except that these days you can’t do that without the EPA jumping on your neck with (for once) full justification. Especially if you’re a recycling business that expects to do this all the time. Just not going to happen.So… I speak to some recyclers and they are gritting their teeth in frustration. They have literally tonnes of valuable copper th
I’m reminded of an article I saw the other day about California having (illegal) marijuana farms being set up in national parks and state forests. The government goes in to break them up and close them down, and (at least in the mind of the reporter writing this story) they were more upset by the damage to the forests than the illegal drugs themselves (which admittedly get less illegal every month or so at the moment.) Anyway, there was the comment that the drug growers would use stuff like [name of some pesticide] to take care of their crop. But this particular pesticide was banned in the USA and so it being used made the area a toxic waste dump. Now they didn’t go into any more detail and I don’t know if the term “toxic waste dump” was just an exaggeration or if it was actually the legal consequence of someone using a 5L bottle of mexican beetle poison. But if it was… hello way to have any location you dislike closed down within the USA.
That’s the sort of thing that could be done. At least part of the problem is that this is straightforward enough at a big mine where you are processing thousands of tonnes per week, but for a small family business that is looking at maybe a few hundred kg a week they are not able to justify anything much more complicated than a fire. A shredder they can do (after all they have LOTS of other stuff they recycle that also gets shredded), but fine grinding is a bit hard. And inert atmosphere? I don’t think so.
I am familiar with ultrahigh temp waste incinerators. The problem there is that they are too hot. Now you’ve vaporised your copper and it’s mixed in with all the other elements and would require something like fractional distillation, or maybe chromatography, to separate it out again. All physically possible of course, but remember the aim is to make a profitable business, not just to achieve it.
Medium level shredding followed by acid dissolution and electro reclamation was my suggestion to the guys. I should find out how they got on.
According to wikipedia /wiki/Copper#Recycling , “lower-purity [copper] scrap is refined by electroplating in a bath of sulfuric acid”. You could probably do that with wiring too. Maybe don’t even need to shred it, since the sulfuric acid will dissolve the copper from the wires. Or shred it a little to help the process. It doesn’t need to be too fine, so maybe doesn’t even need an inert atmosphere.
Shred it to a powder, tumble it to separate the pvc residue off the copper, then shake it to let the copper sink to the bottom. Or wash the powder with some liquid between 1.5 and 8.5 g/cc. The pvc at 1.4 g/cc will float, while the copper at 8.9 g/cc will sink. Still needs the right scale to be economical, and probably need to do this under inert atmosphere, which adds to cost. With thicker wires, the powder can be coarser, so less flammable/explosive. Some suitable liquids are CCl4, concentrated sulfuric acid, and bromine, but they’re difficult to handle (= more costs). Sulfuric acid and bromine will probably react with the copper. Maybe some sort of ionic liquid would work nicely. Too bad copper isn’t magnetic.
Actually, I believe there are incinerators that burn literally anything that can be oxidized — including PVC or even teflon — and produce nothing but CO2 gas, ash, and acid water. The acid water comes from mist that’s injected to absorb acid gases. The acids in the water can be recovered by various means, or simply neutralized with soda ash — sodium carbonate. The process is designed for power plants that burn municipal solid wastes. I’m pretty sure there are at least a handful of demonstration plants around the world. Don’t know how far the technology has gotten in terms of adoption by municipalities, And no, sorry, I don’t have any references to cite. My brain does a fair job of loggine the substance of bits that I read here and there, but I almost never where I read them. Suggest googling on “waste-to-power”.
I’m reminded of an article I saw the other day about California having (illegal) marijuana farms being set up in national parks and state forests. The government goes in to break them up and close them down and (at least in the mind of the reporter writing this story) they were more upset by the damage to the forests than the illegal drugs themselves (which admittedly get less illegal every month or so at the moment.)Anyway there was the comment that the drug growers would use stuff like [name of some pesticide] to take care of their crop. But this particular pesticide was banned in the USA and so it being used made the area a toxic waste dump.Now they didn’t go into any more detail and I don’t know if the term toxic waste dump”” was just an exaggeration or if it was actually the legal consequence of someone using a 5L bottle of mexican beetle poison. But if it was… hello way to have any location you dislike closed down within the USA.”””
That’s the sort of thing that could be done. At least part of the problem is that this is straightforward enough at a big mine where you are processing thousands of tonnes per week but for a small family business that is looking at maybe a few hundred kg a week they are not able to justify anything much more complicated than a fire. A shredder they can do (after all they have LOTS of other stuff they recycle that also gets shredded) but fine grinding is a bit hard. And inert atmosphere? I don’t think so.
I am familiar with ultrahigh temp waste incinerators. The problem there is that they are too hot. Now you’ve vaporised your copper and it’s mixed in with all the other elements and would require something like fractional distillation or maybe chromatography to separate it out again.All physically possible of course but remember the aim is to make a profitable business not just to achieve it.
Medium level shredding followed by acid dissolution and electro reclamation was my suggestion to the guys.I should find out how they got on.
According to wikipedia /wiki/Copper#Recycling lower-purity [copper] scrap is refined by electroplating in a bath of sulfuric acid””. You could probably do that with wiring too. Maybe don’t even need to shred it”” since the sulfuric acid will dissolve the copper from the wires. Or shred it a little to help the process. It doesn’t need to be too fine”” so maybe doesn’t even need an inert atmosphere.”””
Shred it to a powder tumble it to separate the pvc residue off the copper then shake it to let the copper sink to the bottom. Or wash the powder with some liquid between 1.5 and 8.5 g/cc. The pvc at 1.4 g/cc will float while the copper at 8.9 g/cc will sink. Still needs the right scale to be economical and probably need to do this under inert atmosphere which adds to cost. With thicker wires the powder can be coarser so less flammable/explosive.Some suitable liquids are CCl4 concentrated sulfuric acid and bromine but they’re difficult to handle (= more costs). Sulfuric acid and bromine will probably react with the copper. Maybe some sort of ionic liquid would work nicely. Too bad copper isn’t magnetic.
Actually I believe there are incinerators that burn literally anything that can be oxidized — including PVC or even teflon — and produce nothing but CO2 gas ash and acid water. The acid water comes from mist that’s injected to absorb acid gases. The acids in the water can be recovered by various means or simply neutralized with soda ash — sodium carbonate. The process is designed for power plants that burn municipal solid wastes. I’m pretty sure there are at least a handful of demonstration plants around the world. Don’t know how far the technology has gotten in terms of adoption by municipalities And no sorry I don’t have any references to cite. My brain does a fair job of loggine the substance of bits that I read here and there but I almost never where I read them. Suggest googling on waste-to-power””.”””
Artificial floating islands, made from plastic scrap, work well for bioremediation. Plants grow on them and take up heavy metals, excess nitrates & phosphorus, etc. They also help fish by serving as an excellent medium for periphyton growth for food and shelter for young of the year fish.
Artificial floating islands made from plastic scrap work well for bioremediation. Plants grow on them and take up heavy metals excess nitrates & phosphorus etc. They also help fish by serving as an excellent medium for periphyton growth for food and shelter for young of the year fish.
Ha! Cool
Ha! Cool
Ha! Cool
Artificial floating islands, made from plastic scrap, work well for bioremediation. Plants grow on them and take up heavy metals, excess nitrates & phosphorus, etc. They also help fish by serving as an excellent medium for periphyton growth for food and shelter for young of the year fish.
I’m reminded of an article I saw the other day about California having (illegal) marijuana farms being set up in national parks and state forests. The government goes in to break them up and close them down, and (at least in the mind of the reporter writing this story) they were more upset by the damage to the forests than the illegal drugs themselves (which admittedly get less illegal every month or so at the moment.)
Anyway, there was the comment that the drug growers would use stuff like [name of some pesticide] to take care of their crop. But this particular pesticide was banned in the USA and so it being used made the area a toxic waste dump.
Now they didn’t go into any more detail and I don’t know if the term “toxic waste dump” was just an exaggeration or if it was actually the legal consequence of someone using a 5L bottle of mexican beetle poison. But if it was… hello way to have any location you dislike closed down within the USA.
That’s the sort of thing that could be done. At least part of the problem is that this is straightforward enough at a big mine where you are processing thousands of tonnes per week, but for a small family business that is looking at maybe a few hundred kg a week they are not able to justify anything much more complicated than a fire. A shredder they can do (after all they have LOTS of other stuff they recycle that also gets shredded), but fine grinding is a bit hard.
And inert atmosphere? I don’t think so.
I am familiar with ultrahigh temp waste incinerators. The problem there is that they are too hot. Now you’ve vaporised your copper and it’s mixed in with all the other elements and would require something like fractional distillation, or maybe chromatography, to separate it out again.
All physically possible of course, but remember the aim is to make a profitable business, not just to achieve it.
Medium level shredding followed by acid dissolution and electro reclamation was my suggestion to the guys.
I should find out how they got on.
According to wikipedia /wiki/Copper#Recycling , “lower-purity [copper] scrap is refined by electroplating in a bath of sulfuric acid”. You could probably do that with wiring too. Maybe don’t even need to shred it, since the sulfuric acid will dissolve the copper from the wires. Or shred it a little to help the process. It doesn’t need to be too fine, so maybe doesn’t even need an inert atmosphere.
Shred it to a powder, tumble it to separate the pvc residue off the copper, then shake it to let the copper sink to the bottom. Or wash the powder with some liquid between 1.5 and 8.5 g/cc. The pvc at 1.4 g/cc will float, while the copper at 8.9 g/cc will sink. Still needs the right scale to be economical, and probably need to do this under inert atmosphere, which adds to cost. With thicker wires, the powder can be coarser, so less flammable/explosive.
Some suitable liquids are CCl4, concentrated sulfuric acid, and bromine, but they’re difficult to handle (= more costs). Sulfuric acid and bromine will probably react with the copper. Maybe some sort of ionic liquid would work nicely. Too bad copper isn’t magnetic.
Actually, I believe there are incinerators that burn literally anything that can be oxidized — including PVC or even teflon — and produce nothing but CO2 gas, ash, and acid water. The acid water comes from mist that’s injected to absorb acid gases. The acids in the water can be recovered by various means, or simply neutralized with soda ash — sodium carbonate.
The process is designed for power plants that burn municipal solid wastes. I’m pretty sure there are at least a handful of demonstration plants around the world. Don’t know how far the technology has gotten in terms of adoption by municipalities, And no, sorry, I don’t have any references to cite. My brain does a fair job of loggine the substance of bits that I read here and there, but I almost never where I read them. Suggest googling on “waste-to-power”.
Just because something has a lot of metal in it does not mean it is economically viable to process those metals out.
Here’s an example I know a bit about: old wiring.
Just about everything you can poke a stick at, plus some types of stick, has wiring in it these days. Thin strands of copper with PVC insulation.
Why PVC (poly vinyl chloride)?
Because it’s cheap, waterproof, a pretty good insulator, and tough. Really tough. You can get PVC insulation, subject it to strong electric fields. Bake it at up to the boiling point of water. Vibrate it. Temperature cycle it from freezing to boiling and back again every day. And do this for literally decades.
And after all that it will still be covering your wires and keeping them insulated and safe and dry.
And then… the product isn’t wanted any more and now all those wires just look like rubbish to be disposed of. EXCEPT that they contain heaps of copper, which is valuable.
So you get the PVC off. But how? Well… that’s the problem.
In the old days you’d pile all your wires up in a huge pile, throw some petrol on it, strike a match and step back. Way back. No, a lot further back. Because that pile of burning wire will be generating a huge plume of horrible black smoke. Filed with tar and soot and microparticles and toxic fumes, various organochlorine compounds… and quite significant quantities of hydrochloric acid. You don’t want to be anywhere near that smoke. You don’t want anything you even like to be near that smoke.
But it all burns up, the smoke goes away, and now you’ve got a tangled mess of copper wire you can melt down and sell.
Except that these days you can’t do that without the EPA jumping on your neck with (for once) full justification. Especially if you’re a recycling business that expects to do this all the time. Just not going to happen.
So… I speak to some recyclers and they are gritting their teeth in frustration. They have literally tonnes of valuable copper that they just can’t get out of the PVC coatings. Yes you can strip it with a blade, by hand, if you have near-slaves you can pay $1/day. And you can run it through a shredding machine and then try to dissolve the copper out with acid. That might work out feasible with some developments and very large turnover.
But here and now the best you can do is sell if for a small fraction of the nominal value to some place in India where they have the labour costs to process it by hand. In the first world it’s just frustratingly useless.
Well, first you burn them. Once you accumulate enough ashes, it becomes a resource, heavy metals ore!
Ignore him. Edgy 12 year-olds love apocalypse-inducing AnCap philosophies.
Actually, an astonishing number of micro organisms have the capability to adjust their metabolism to digest hydro carbons. It’s a common source of energy in the entire eco system.
Almost all hydro carbons are consumed by different micro organisms all over the planet.
This is taken advantage of when cleaning up spills and it’s called bio remediation. The method is about accelerating natural processes by alleviating bottlenecks so the hydro carbons are digested quicker. Often the bottlenecks are lack of oxygen and/or NPK.
I don’t get it. You have a filter that leaches heavy metals, with costs dictated by public-policy-preference where one can argue that the rent-seek isn’t even a shame. Why not HARVEST THEM?
“Pecunia non olet.”
…..that…you may want to rethink that point your making.
A gallon of water in your body is normal, that same in your lungs and your dead.
Oil in the water is bad and it does need to be cleaned up. SALT is also horrible. Its destroying the water ways here in Tennesse I can only imagine about up north. Its killing the fish and other wild life and harming the whole ecosystem around it.
The above is a common sense attempt to clean it. More of the thinking shown here is needed.
More choking regulations. Soon a drop of oil will be a “spill”. When it is in the ground it’s nat-u-ral; on the ground – in minute quantity – completely different story. Thank God for Dawn dish soap to clean up the ducklings. Buy proctor & gamble!